The Anomaly of Asian Stereotypes

                                     

We are the Other - 38th Street & Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, by Wing Young Huie, May 28th, 2012

Denotation:

 

When one first stares at the image above, it becomes instantaneously obvious that the chicken wing restaurant seems somewhat dilapidated and that the areas infrastructure is also poor. Upon further examination one notices the image of male that is wearing a straw hat; it is blatantly obvious that the man’s overall image derives from south east-east Asia, thus it is probably of a Chinese or Vietnamese origin. Secondly the mans dental condition can be considered a form of visual pollution, and since he only possess one tooth, his image can be usually associated with stupidity. There is also a broken down sign behind the window of the store, which might have been from the time that the restaurant was still operational. There is a store on the other side of the street that states Urban Outlet, and another that can be perceived as a typical twentieth century parlor that was probably used for giving haircuts. The restaurant's windows seem to be laden with graffiti; there seems to be a lack of pedestrians and residents in the area.

Connotations:

When one thoroughly analyses the image above, it becomes obvious that the restaurant's depiction of the East-Asian man supports certain stereotypes of the Asian-Oriental populace. The most prominent stereotype depicted is that Asian peoples, mainly Chinese, posses a yellow tinted skin, and that they are mostly uneducated farmers, thus the picture portrays the man as having a straw hat, indicating that he is a farmer, and a single tooth along with his mouth open to represent the lack of education he possess. These depictions connotate the late nineteenth century American and western view of the Asian peoples as being a backward and barbaric people. These stereotypes have been reinforced by the American government through the enactment of certain laws against Chinese immigration as well as the establishment of internment camps for the Japanese in 1942. These actions together shaped the American views of the East-Asian world. After much of the despise aimed against East-Asians was subtly declining, such restaurants were probably abandoned due to lack of business because of racial insensitivity or due to being forcibly moved to internment camps; this, above all, may have ultimately lead to the decline of consumers at this restaurant and at the surrounding stores. In terms of the economic stability of this area, this can be determined by the income of the stores which , given the stores outer appearance, seems to some extent humble; thus it is of no surprise that this area is in such an appalling state.

"Othering" in Wing Young Huei's work and Margaret Atwood's work:

Wing Young Huie represents the concept of "othering" in this image by, portraying the color of the restaurant's logo as well as its embedded image. Huie's style of photography clearly focuses on certain aspects and objects of an area, and makes them easily distinguishable from the rest of the image. He displays "othering" by showing a brightly yellow colored logo on a restaurant from an angle that clearly and completely captures most if not all of the physical features of the wings restaurant, and is in some fashion biased, due to the depicting of the the other building from an unfavorable point of view.

Margaret Atwood represents "othering" in The Handmaid's Tale, in a manner that is strikingly similar to that Huie , since she uses certain physical objects as well as colors to distinguish between people and in terms of the duties made obligatory on them by Gileadean society and to determine their social class. This can be shown by the prescribed colors of the clothes of the women in Gilead, in which the wives were forced to wear blue cloth, while the handmaids red cloth, and the Marthas Green cloth. This was done by the Gileadean government so that the classification of women would be simple and somewhat stereotypical. "Othering" in The Handmaid's Tale extends to many aspects other than the color of clothing; it can be extended to serve as a descriptor of certain actions and of the certain people who commit such actions. An example of such treatment is that of those who took up the job of being a prostitute and an abortion doctor, in which they are first deemed as inferior for their "rebellious" actions against the government and then are executed. Other examples of "othering" can be expounded to the point were if one fails to perform an actions such a as giving birth as a handmaid, they are sent to the colonies and are permanently grouped among with all those who live in such a place, thus they are ultimately being stereotyped against as being a part of the lower class.

Ultimately, the concept of "othering" in the works of Huie and Atwood, are somewhat similar but are mostly different due to the fact that Huie's work depicts "othering" in a manner that distinguishes people based on their ethnicity, and race while Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale depicts "othering" in a multitude of manners that include the distinguishing of people based on their supposed jobs and also based on their actions.